There are many so called “Peer to Peer” (P2P) products available for connecting processing devices over a network to share data between the processing devices. The P2P products are typically software that are executed by the processing device to provide a connection between the processing devices. The products allow a user to designate a collection of files that are to be “shared.” That is, these files are made available for retrieval by other processing devices executing the P2P software. The P2P products also allow a user to locate files of interest on another processing system and to retrieve files from the other processing system. Typical P2P products run on top of vastly interconnected and loosely coupled networks. These networks run on top of typical networks like TCP, UDP, ATM, etc.
Intellectual property right holders of a work typically have a right to payment when the work is used. For purposes of the present discussion, a work is anything that is fixed in a tangible medium. Some examples of works include, but are not limited to, audio renderings, video renderings, images, video/audio renderings, and software. An example of an audio rendering include a song and/or other audio track. Examples of video renderings include an animation and/or a video sequence. Examples of an image include a photograph and/or paintings. Examples of audio/video renderings include movies, television shows, and cartoons. Examples of software include word processing programs and video games.
Most works have a property right, such as a copyright associated with a work. Thus, the owner of the property right is entitled to a royalty or other form of compensation for use of the work. For example, an owner of a song copyright, such as a songwriter, is entitled to a royalty for each copy of the recording produced.
Courts today have sometimes found that the transfer of a work over a network constitutes a use of that work and thus a license is required from the copyright holder and some form of payment is typically due.
The files that are transferred over Peer to Peer “P2P” networks often are the embodiment of intellectual property of a work i.e. a copyright protected work. The transfer of files containing protected works is often done without the permission of the owner of the right.
Some copyright holders have taken objection to P2P file transfers and have taken steps to disrupt these transfers. As one example, a right holder might become a peer in one of these networks. This peer will share what appears to be a copy of a desirable work. However, that copy will in fact be defective in some way. The copy might be damaged or might even contain other content that the right holder wishes to convey. Damaged or substitute content is called “decoy” content.
The right holders might take aggressive steps to introduce these damaged files into these P2P networks. The right holders might not act as just one peer on the network, but act as hundreds or thousands, or hundreds of thousands of peers, thus flooding the network with damaged files. This action is called “spoofing.” Their intent is to make the network unreliable for the transmission of their works. Their hope is that an unreliable network will discourage users from transferring these works.
However, as aggressive as this sounds, the approach is not effective. P2P products have become adept at sharing information between peers. When one peer finds that decoy content is being shared by a particular IP address, it alerts other peers and the other peers in turn alert others. The source IP address is quickly eliminated from the network and the spoofer becomes ineffective. Some networks are able to eliminate entire IP address ranges from their scope. Some P2P products use a hash code or other mechanism to verify that the downloaded content is not damaged and reject any work with damaged content.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a method of introducing decoy material into a P2P network that can defeat the detect of the spoofed material in order to allow propagation of the spoofed material through a P2P network to discourage unauthorized transfers over the network of a protected work.